Archives of Transport (Mar 2021)
Logistics engineering and industry 4.0 and digital factory
Abstract
The number of IT systems and technologies supporting various processes, including the manufacturing, has been grow-ing in recent years. Various versions of integrated ERP-class systems are known. At the same time, we are in the fourth industrial revolution. The future is Industry 4.0 and Digital Factory. Industry 4.0 is an overall term for technical inno-vations and value change organization concepts which revolutionize the industrial production. Currently, the digital technologies change the way production is carried out by generating, transferring and processing of data, and also by analysing large amounts of datasets. There is a problem of the place and significance of logistics, transport and supply chains in the fourth industrial revolution. What is logistics engineering, what methods are suggested to solve the con-temporary problems of logistic support of production processes? To whom are the virtual systems dedicated? What rules should be applied by small and medium enterprises (SME)? Is the pressure of virtual world a threat to such com-panies? Is it possible to design and make real products without virtual manufacturing? Hence, does Logistics 4.0 exist and where is it used? The practice of logistics engineering is applied during the entire system lifecycle by means of interactive processes supporting the analyses and research (compromise) for optimization of costs, logistics and effi-ciency. Surely, it can be said that without the correctly designed and effective logistic processes the contemporary production system could not achieve the required productivity and effectiveness. The article describes the basic tasks of logistics engineering in relation to production companies, as well as relations with Industry 4.0. and digital factory. Moreover, a proposal of the author’s own algorithms for use in the quest to improve the continuity of flow and of enterprise effectiveness for SME class companies was presented.
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